Hyderabad: In an open letter to chief minister A Revanth Reddy, former minister Harish Rao has called for the immediate fulfilment of promises made to farmers. Urging the CM to visit the paddy procurement centres, he questioned why purchases had not commenced, even with considerable paddy piling up.He slammed the Congress party’s farmer declaration as insincere, asserting that the commitments made during the elections have not been honoured after assuming power. He insisted that the promised bonus of 500 per quintal for fine rice should be paid immediately, alongside the paddy payments. He also raised concerns about the plight of sunflower farmers, who he said have been waiting at the centres for 20 days without resolution.“The central govt has only bought a quarter of the sunflower crop. The state govt must step up and purchase the remaining 1.20 lakh quintals without conditions. The Congress govt’s policies have become a burden for chickpea farmers, halting purchases at centres entirely. With a support price of 5,875 for chickpeas, farmers find themselves forced to sell to private traders for only 3,000-4,000 due to inaction. When will we see sorghum procurement centres established? Given the minimum support price of 3,371, farmers are selling to private buyers for just 2,500, leading to substantial losses. Is it really necessary to discriminate against hardworking maize farmers?” Harish Rao stated in his letter.
